Today, April 28th, marked International Workers’ Memorial Day – a day to remember individuals who have lost their lives or been injured at work.
At the time of writing this post, Aljazeera is reporting 380 dead as a result of the eight story building that collapsed on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Wednesday, April 24th. This number will continue to rise, as hundreds (an estimated 600, as the Aljazeera story reports) remain unaccounted for.
The heavy news coverage has been bitter sweet. Perhaps this quote from Human Rights Watch sums up why:
“Given the long record of worker deaths in factories, this tragedy was sadly predictable.” (Brad Adams, Asia director, Human Rights Watch)
As details continue to unfold, our thoughts are with the workers – this week and every week.
Suggested readings & resources: BUY Stage, TEACH Stage
Suggested discussion question:
An eight story building collapses on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing hundreds of people. The building contained garment factories manufacturing fast fashion clothing for export to Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Who is responsible?
- The building owner
- The building contractors and engineers
- The factory owners
- The companies (foreign/domestic) sourcing from the factories (including the designers, the buyers)
- The Bangladesh government (local/national)
- The Canadian, British and American governments importing the product
- The international community (the International Labour Organization, World Trade Organization, etc.)
- Fashion and business education systems, etc.
- The end users (the consumers purchasing the imported product)
- All of the above
- All of the above and more…
Mary has a PhD in Sociology from University of Edinburgh, researching responsible fashion and transnational labour rights activism in the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh.
